This is embarrassing, but I have always usually had this problem during meditation. I've been meditating for many years, frequently, intensely and deeply. Often times while sitting in half lotus position--regardless if a pillow is used or not--my right leg will begin to tremble, slightly or severely, and nothing will make it stop unless I relax my breath. But it's not helpful to meditate with a bent back. If my back straightens, my leg almost always begins to tremble, as well as part of my back muscles. Sometimes I spend 10 minutes trying to meditate, with some success, despite the trembling but ultimately I have to give up because you can only go so far with a trembling leg. Yes, I do practice other postures of meditation as well as walking meditation, but sitting meditation is necessary. And sitting with crossed legs is a form of meditation which I really need to be able to do. Sitting on my legs is something I've often done, but usually my body is off balance in that position.

Suggestions. Advice. Help.

Thank you.

A seed sleeps in soil.It's cold and alone, hopeless.Until it blooms above.

Is it something that only happens while you are in half-lotus or does it happen in other sitting postures? If not, you may wish to try meditating in the, for example, the burmese sitting posture.Wishing you all the best,

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

This usually happens to me with me left leg. I can never quite get a left-right balance down, and I think that this is part of my problem. I sit on a zafu and zabuton, and I usually have to switch positions every 20 minutes between half lotus, cross-legged, and sitting on the zafu with my legs underneath and to the side of it.

For me, some luck comes when I put my legs closer to my hips, but sometimes it doesn't seem to help at all.

Does your leg go to sleep and tingle, or does it physically twitch or move involuntarily?

If it is a mere sensation, then I would suggest just trying to monitor it with mindfulness. But if it's a real movement that you can't control, you're probably putting pressure on a tendon and that's not good. I'd recommend using the Burmese position, as Ben said, or getting a stool.

Also experiment with moving yourself up or down. Sometimes a folded pillow under the cushion makes all the difference, as a higher seat allows for deeper hip rotation. This may solve your problem too.

Gain and loss, status and disgrace, censure and praise, pleasure and pain:these conditions among human beings are inconstant,impermanent, subject to change.

LonesomeYogurt wrote:Does your leg go to sleep and tingle, or does it physically twitch or move involuntarily?

If it is a mere sensation, then I would suggest just trying to monitor it with mindfulness. But if it's a real movement that you can't control, you're probably putting pressure on a tendon and that's not good. I'd recommend using the Burmese position, as Ben said, or getting a stool.

Also experiment with moving yourself up or down. Sometimes a folded pillow under the cushion makes all the difference, as a higher seat allows for deeper hip rotation. This may solve your problem too.

I experimented with moving and repositioning with a pillow. Eventually it always came back. But the Burmese posture is working a little better for it. I'm sure it's a tendon.

A seed sleeps in soil.It's cold and alone, hopeless.Until it blooms above.